Fonty Flock wins Southern 500 in Bermuda shorts

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abooja

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http://www.morningnewsonline.com/sports/MG...GBGPNH2I5D.html

Aug 30, 2002

Top 10 Southern 500 moments: No. 10, Fonty Flock wins in Bermuda shorts

By WADE BAKER
Morning News

It wasn't uncommon to see a Flock visiting the designated victory lane in the early days of NASCAR.

The three brothers, Fonty, Tim and Frank, ruled the foundation days of NASCAR.

However, it was Fonty that was the weird one — the one that always made himself stand out from the rest.

Nothing illustrated it more than in the winner's circle of Flock's 1952 Southern 500 victory at Darlington, in just the third running of the historic race. After claiming the flag, Flock accepted his prize in a pair of Bermuda shorts.

"Fonty was an interesting character," former Darlington Raceway President Jim Hunter said, now the Vice President of Corporate Communications for NASCAR. "I wasn't around at the time, but I've been told about some of the stuff he would do at the track.

"I heard he even had a monkey he'd put in his car, I guess for good luck, from track to track."

However, what Flock was noted for in the 1952 Southern 500 was his fashion sense. Since there were no fire suits for drivers to wear in the early days, most elected to dress in work uniforms and regular shoes.

That wasn't the case for Flock.

He not only started the race, but won it, wearing the shorts and a pullover collared shirt. When he got out of his car, he raised the checkered flag on the hood of his car, still in his white summer outfit.

"Most of the guys just drove in T-shirts and white work pants back then," NASCAR historian Bob Latford said, who was attending his second Southern 500 in 1952. "That was just another flamboyant illustration of Flamboyant Fonty.

"He was a showman, as well as a good racer."

Thus Flock earned the nickname "Flamboyant," and became well-known for his entertaining ways on and off the track. He'd become known for wearing enlarged sunglasses, just to have fun around the race track.

"They didn't have fire suits back then, so everybody basically wore regular shoes, pants and work shirts," said Tom Kirkland, a former photographer with the Morning News who covered the race from 1950-'67. "Really, seeing Fonty get out of the car with his Bermuda shorts on, that was just the way he was back then.

"It was unusual to see a driver in Bermuda shorts, but I think everybody expected that out of Fonty."

Flock started the race from the pole in his 1952 Oldsmobile and reclaimed the lead on lap 185. He never relinquished the helm again as he coasted the rest of the way for his first win of the season.

It turned out to be his only Southern 500 win.

"He had been a Late Model champion," said Latford. "His career was really already established before that win, but he was the flamboyant one of the Flocks. He just decided it was too hot on Labor Day at Darlington. So, he wore his Bermuda shorts that day, to be cooler in the car.

"I'd say it didn't hurt his chances that year."

The race got really interesting after the checkered flag came out on the 1.25-mile track. Flock parked his car on the frontstretch after the race, got out of the car and then stood on the hood.

Flock then led the reported crowd of 32,400 in the singing of "Dixie."

"It was just part of the tradition they got going down there," Latford said. "Maybe it started accidently, I really don't know for sure. But, it was just Darlington, the South, the battle flag and that's how it was done then.

"Indy had a tradition, and that was Darlington's. It didn't matter what it was — Bermuda shorts or whatever, Fonty just wanted to stand out more than the rest."
 
Great Story!:D

But who the hell is Frank Flock? I know of Tim, Fonty, Bob, and their sister Ethel. but I don't remember any Frank Flock.
 
Sorry, left out Jocko Flocko, but he wasn't really related. He just told folks he was!:D
 
Good question about Frank Flock. I did a bunch of searches, and haven't been able to find him. Perhaps the author meant Bob?
 
No need to search, there was no Frank Flock, at least not one of these brothers.

There was an older borther, Carl. He was never in the racing business. However Fonty, Bob, and Carl were in in the bootlegging business with their uncle, Peachtree Williams. Uncle Peachtree was alleged to be the biggest bootlegger in the Atlanta area in his time. They did keep out Tim out of the business, but not out of racing.

Jocko was Tim's pet monkey who rode in several races with Tim in the '50's
 
Yeah, heard about Jocko previously. :) I really need to see a photo of Jocko and Tim in that car together! Have you ever seen one, HS? I suspect this mission is hopeless...

Here are some more interesting facts about Tim and the rest of the Flock clan:

http://espn.go.com/classic/s/add_flock_tim.html

Friday, February 23, 2001
Racing was monkey business
By Lisette Hilton
Special to ESPN.com

Signature Race
Feb. 27, 1955 - Tim Flock was so angry when he was disqualified on a technicality at Daytona last year that he quit driving, vowing never to compete in a NASCAR race again. But Flock grew bored and made a brief return late in 1954.

Although he came back to Daytona Beach in February 1955, it was only as a spectator. However, after seeing Carl Kiekhaefer's new Chrysler 300, Flock's eyes lit up and he wanted back in. Kiekhaefer gave him the ride.

Flock won the pole for the 160-mile Grand National event on Daytona's Beach and Road Course with a speed of 130 mph. But before a crowd of 27,000 at today's 39-lap race, Flock was not as successful. Racing his car at 92 mph, he crossed the finish line in one hour, 44 minutes and 17 seconds. That was one minute and 14 seconds behind Fireball Roberts.

But the next morning, Flock got a measure of revenge for last year when it was announced that Roberts had been disqualified because his push rods had been altered. Flock's victory was worth $2,350 of the $9,775 purse. It was the first time a car equipped with an automatic transmission won at Daytona.

Odds 'n' Ends

Tim's mother Maudie was known as "Big Momma."

In his spare time, Tim's father Lee was a tightrope walker and bicycle racer.

Returning from the Army in 1942, Tim worked several jobs, including that of a taxi driver, fireman and an ironworker.

Married and broke, Flock and his wife Frances moved in with her parents for a few months.

Flock made the decision to become a fulltime racecar driver in 1949 and moved his family to Winston-Salem, N.C.

Painted on the trunk of Flock's racing car in 1949 was this message: "If you can read this you are too damn close!"

Flock won seven of his 30 starts in 1951 and eight of 33 in 1952 before slipping in 1953, winning just once in 26 races.

Jocko Flocko, a rhesus monkey that Flock sometimes put in his racing car with him in 1953, wore a racing suit and goggles. A nylon safety belt kept him in his seat and he was elevated so he could look out the window.

Flock sued Champion Spark Plug Co., the owner of the car that ran him over in 1953. They settled out of court.

In 1954, because he temporarily quit the sport after being disqualified at Daytona, Flock competed in only five races. He didn't win any of them.

Flock started driving for Kiekhaefer in a car with an automatic transmission in 1955, but insisted on a stick shift. On Kiekhaefer's orders, Chrysler built a straight stick transmission to go into the 300 series.

While racing for Kiekhaefer in 1955, Flock received $2,500 a month in salary.

Flock's check for winning the 1955 NASCAR Grand National championship was $5,000.

Flock admitted to heavy drinking and brawling as part of his life on the road.

Flock had 102 top five finishes in his 189 races.

The Flock brothers won a combined 63 Grand National races and $185,115 in prize money.

Besides Tim, Fonty and Bob are also members of the National Motorsports Press Association's Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame. Fonty died of cancer two months before Tim was inducted in 1972.

Tim was inducted into the Georgia Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977 and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991.

Tim and Frances Flock owned a video business, but closed it in 1992.

They were married 54 years and had five children: Richard, Donald, Carl, Joy and Peggy.

Flock didn't have any health insurance when he died in 1998. Many tried to raise money for Flock and his family to help pay off the medical bills.
 
Sorry, but I think I'm becoming a bit obsessed with Jocko Flocko!! Here's another story: :D

http://www.racefanguide.com/editorial11.html

Tim Flock: Not The Usual Monkey Business.
By Michael Smith

It’s safe to say that Tim Flock is the only NASCAR driver who ever lost a race because of a monkey. The episode happened during the 1950’s and the monkey was a passenger in Flock’s car, but we’re getting ahead of the story.

Tim Flock along with his three older brothers Carl, Bob and Fonty, grew up in Fort Payne, Alabama during the tough years of the Great Depression. Tim’s father passed away in 1925 on the eve of the national economic collapse and the family struggled to make ends meet. To supplement the family income, the three older Flock brothers assisted their uncle Peachtree Williams in his moonshine business, making two runs a day to Dahlonega, Georgia. It wasn’t long before the youngest Flock boy was riding along on the delivery excursions as well.

Naturally, as is the case whenever youngsters gather with fast cars, the Flocks eventually got around to running their car against other ‘shine runners to see whose cars were fastest on a given day. As with the day-to-day running of moonshine, young Tim Flock tagged along when the racing competitions were held, too. Bob and Fonty got the jump on younger Tim, though Tim would rise to greater prominence in what came to be NASCAR. Bob and Fonty participated in some of the earliest stock car showdowns in the 1930s, running primarily at Dawsonville, Georgia. Tim jumped into the fray a bit later, in 1947 to be exact and later that year he claimed his first win at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta.

When Big Bill France ran an experimental NASCAR event in February of 1949 it was Bob Flock who claimed the checkered flag and within months, France held the first “Strictly Stock” (what is today known as Winston Cup) race at Charlotte, North Carolina and the three Flock brothers were in the field when the green flag dropped. At the end of the day Fonty finished second behind the wheel of a ’49 Hudson, young Tim finished fifth driving an Olds 88 and Bob, who started from the pole, finished thirty-second due to an engine failure in his ’46 Hudson.

Tim’s first NASCAR victory came the following year when he bested his own brother Bob to win the second Grand National event at Charlotte. Of the three racing Flock brothers, Tim would go on to have the best career as a driver, despite the fact that his career was cut short by forces outside his control.

Tim captured his first national championship in 1952 driving Hudson Hornet’s for Ted Chester, an Atlanta car dealer. With a flat head straight-six engine, the Hornet would seem an unlikely candidate for stockcar racing dominance. Even when fitted with a specially designed racing carburetor, the Hornet produced only in the neighborhood of 170 horsepower. The secret to the Hudson Hornet’s success was the fact that in NASCAR’s formative years, many races were still run on dirt and the Hornet’s low revving torque made it a killer on dirt tracks.

On the way to the 1952 championship, Tim Flock won 8 times and finished in the top five no less than 14 times. The next two years Flock’s on-track performance tapered off a great deal and he posted just a single victory in 1953 and no victories in 1954. It should be pointed out that Flock ran only five races in 1954, after quitting in disgust after having the Daytona victory taken away from him by Big Bill France. A post race inspection found polished ports in the carburetor and the victory was taken away. Flock vowed never to race in NASCAR again.

Tim Flock opened a Pure Oil station in Atlanta and seemed content to live out his life as an entrepreneur, were it not for a fortuitous twist of fate. When the 1955 Daytona race rolled around, Flock had no intention of attending the event even as a spectator much less as a competitor until a group of his buddies showed up and convinced him to travel to Florida to take in race festivities.

Once there, Flock and his buddies stood watching the time trials one day during Speedweeks as a Chrysler 300 roared by on the wide flat beach. Out loud Flock said if he had a car like that under him, he could win the race. Well, unbeknownst to Flock a local Mercury Outboard Motors dealer overheard the remark and recognized Flock as the previous year’s disqualified winner. The dealer introduced Flock to the owner of the Chrysler 300 team, Carl Kiekhaefer who was NASCAR’s first big time multi-car team owner and as luck would have it, Kiekhaefer was looking for another driver.

Flock stepped into one of Kiekhaefer’s Chrysler’s and took the pole for the Daytona beach race, then finished second behind Fireball Roberts on race day. Ironically, the following day, while eating breakfast, Flock and Kiekhaefer were informed that Roberts’ car had been disqualified for having illegal engine components, so the victory was given to Flock.

Tim Flock remained with the Kiekhaefer team for the remainder of the 1955 season and enjoyed phenomenal success, winning a record 18 races in 39 starts. Life as a Kiekhaefer team driver had its bonuses and its drawbacks. As the inventor of the Mercury outboard motor, Carl Kiekhaefer was interested primarily in gaining publicity for his team and his product. To Kiekhaefer, already a wealthy man, the prize money was secondary at best. Flock received a monthly salary of $2,500 and he was allowed to keep all the prize money from his races. Additionally, Kiekhaefer occasionally paid a bonus for races won during the season. But the benefits did not come without sacrifice. Kiekhaefer ruled the team with an iron fist, insisting on a strict curfew and rigid sleeping arrangements while on the road, even for the married drivers. During test runs and qualifying, drivers were required to monitor engine gauges and were debriefed afterwards, much like military pilots following missions. The strict regimentation grated on the free spirited Flock and, when Kiekhaefer began choosing which driver would win certain races, ordering the others to pit during green flag laps, Flock had had enough. Flock resigned from the team in early 1956 but not before claiming his second championship with a stellar run in 1955. His single season win record of 18 victories would stand until Richard Petty’s outstanding 1967 season.

Flock ran fourteen more races during the 1956 season, his final victory coming in Bill Stroppe’s M335 Mercury at Elkhart Lake. He continued to race on into the 1961 season but the past success was never matched and that year he ran afoul of Big Bill France when he, along with Curtis Turner, attempted to organize NASCAR drivers into a union. Turner had gotten into financial trouble in his efforts to build Charlotte Motor Speedway. In an effort to raise money Turner approached teamster’s boss Jimmy Hoffa who offered to help monetarily in exchange for Turner’s promise to organize NASCAR’s drivers. Tim Flock, who had butted heads with Big Bill France many times in the past, joined Turner in his effort and, when the whole organizing plan fell apart, both Turner and Flock received lifetime bans from NASCAR racing.

In 1966, with the manufacturers pulling out of the sport, Big Bill France was forced to lift the ban in order to get the former big name drivers back into the fold. Turner accepted the offer but years of battling Big Bill France had left Tim Flock justifiably tired and bitter and he adamantly refused to return to racing cars. Flock did continue to work in the ranks of NASCAR, primarily as program director at Charlotte Motor Speedway until retiring in the Charlotte area.

During the 1998 celebration of NASCAR’s 50th Anniversary, Tim Flock received some measure of the recognition he deserved. Numerous media outlets interviewed Flock and Darrell Waltrip ran a special all-white paint scheme with Flock’s trademark number 300 during qualifying for one race. (NASCAR got the last word in, however, by refusing the number 300 to run during the race due to the potential for scoring problems with a 3-digit number on the car. Waltrip ran the paint scheme with his customary number 17 instead. To some, it represented NASCAR’s final swipe at a once great driver.) Sadly, while at the height of the sport’s celebration, Tim Flock was diagnosed with cancer and did not live out the season, though he departed the worldly ranks of racing full in the knowledge that he was well respected and recognized for his contribution to American stockcar racing.

But what about the monkey you ask? In 1953, during Tim Flock’s tenure with the Ted Chester racing team, Mr. Chester decided it would be a neat gimmick to have a rhesus monkey ride along with Flock in the car during races. A small raised seat was constructed on the passenger side of the racecar and little “Jocko Flocko” as he came to be called, was outfitted with a miniature driving suit. The setup was a success and fans apparently delighted in seeing the little monkey whizzing past during races, but on May 30, 1953 things got out of hand. During a race Jocko got loose from his seat and proceeded to climb around inside the racecar. In those days, many of the cars in NASCAR racing were equipped with a trap door on the passenger side floorboard. During races a driver could lift open the trapdoor to check the wear on his right front tire. Well, Jocko was evidently an observant little fellow and, having seen Tim lift the trapdoor numerous times during previous races, he decided to lift the door and have a look for himself.

What happened next is unclear; either Jocko got too close to the spinning tire and skinned himself, or a rock flew up and hit him. Whatever the cause, the result is undisputed; Jocko went berserk and began tearing around inside the car. Tim found himself forced to restrain his “co-driver” with one hand while steering for the pits with the other. Thus, a first place finish turned into a third place finish, and all because of a monkey.

copyright 2000. Michael Smith
 
Checked my Stock Car Encyclopedia, the author in the first article must have smoking some bad stuff. LOL

Don't know where the "Frank" came from.
Only Flock brothers were
Robert Newman
Truman Fontell
Julius Timothy

There is also a Ruby Flock listed as the car owner for Sara Christian in 1949.
 
Somewhere I have seen a pic of Tim and Jocko, boo.

I don't have it in my archives and dem if I can remember where I saw it. It may not have been online, but if I can come across it I'll let you know.
 
Thanks again, HS. I'm afraid this evening has diminished into a full-scale search for photos of Jocko Flocko. :eek:
 
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